


Eye of the Storm (AKA Kubrick Lives!)

by XenonFae



Category: Deus Ex (Video Games), Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Augmentation, BAMF Dogs, Canon Compliant, Conspiracy Theories, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Injury Recovery, Kubrick Lives!, LITERALLY, Loss of Limbs, Major Character Injury, Maybe - Freeform, Mental Health Issues, Platonic Relationships, Puppy Love, Service Dogs, Therapy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-08-19 07:11:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8195422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XenonFae/pseuds/XenonFae
Summary: Dr. Tabitha Rowan is a member of Sarif Industries Research and Development department, a specialist in Augmentation applied neuro-biomedical engineering, an addict of the dance game Groove Station, and (most importantly) mother to the dog Atwood and lover of dogs in general.Following an Attack on Sarif Industries, Megan Reed and Adam Jensen's dog Kubrick is left effectively orphaned. When everyone else turns their back on the canine, Tabitha's bleeding heart craves in and takes the desperate pup into her care at the 11th hour. What follows is an exploration of Puppy Love (both figurative and literal), rehabilitation, fake DDR clones, bad coping methods, peer grief counseling, platonic romance, narration by animals, and (most importantly) lots n' lots of angst! (and maybe a conspiracy or two...)





	1. Missing Mama

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Everyone!
> 
> Do you experience feelings of absolute despair and/or rage when you think of the horrible, and easily preventable, fate Kubrick Reed-Jensen befell as a result of the Attack on Sarif Industries? 
> 
> Well I certainly did! So much so that decided that I had to save Kubrick by way of fan fiction! Along the way I decided I needed to include a pooch loving OC (and OC pooch) in with the mix, a shit ton of angst, a fictional Dance Dance Revolution rip off, and much much more!
> 
> This story is a major milestone for me as it's my first ever fan fiction! Woot Woot! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy. Constructive criticism is always welcome and encouraged!
> 
> I dedicate this first chapter and the rest of this story to  
> [lectrolamb](http://archiveofourown.org/users/lectrolamb/pseuds/lectrolamb). She proof read this chapter for me and has been an amazing source of inspiration and support. Please check out her Deus Ex story [Sunshine](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6898201/chapters/15737164) if you have not already. To say it is fantastic would be an understatement.

When his Mama didn’t come home that night he missed her like he usually did, but he wasn’t that surprised. His Mama was always out of the house, leaving him alone. 

Sometimes he liked it, being left by himself. When his Mama was out it meant he could run out in the yard for hours without her calling out at him to stop. Sometimes he even got to run into the neighbor's’ yard and oh boy was that always an adventure! Well, at least it was an adventure until the neighbors realized that he was in their yard having said adventure, then they screamed “KUBRICK!!!” or “BAD!!!” or “LEAVE!!!” at him. Then he either had to run back into his yard on his own or the neighbor would chase him back by force. He didn’t like being yelled at. Whatever, it was still fun.

But most of the time Mama made him stay in the crate when she wasn’t home, and he didn’t like that. There was no room to run around and play inside the cramped space, so all he could do was lay down on the bed inside his crate and chew on his Synth Bone or cuddle his stuffed Lamb Chop (he loved his Lamb Chop, though not as much as Mama or Dad, even if he barely saw Dad anymore), or decide to nap. That was not fun at all

Sometimes, his Mama was gone for few days, but for him it felt like forever. Being away from his Mama for a couple hours, maybe a single day was one thing, but more than that?! No way! If he understood the term “Cruel and Unusual Punishment” he would definitely say not seeing his Mama for more than a day qualified as that. When Mama was gone for long periods of time he usually went to Doggy Daycare, and even if the humans taking care of him were really sweet and gave him treats and would tell him how much of a “good boy” he was, they also made him take a bath and that meant he couldn’t like them too much because they put him through that torture. 

He did get to see other doggies at Doggy Daycare too, and he loved being able to sniff them and run around with them during group playtime, but aside from group playtime he was separated from them in his own little room with his water bowl and Lamb Chop and the TV that was always on so he wouldn’t feel lonely but he still felt lonely. It was not nearly as fun as being with his Mama, and when she FINALLY came back to pick him up he jumped on top of her and covered her face with kisses and gave off some loud barks because he was SO happy she was back. 

The few times he didn’t go to Doggy Daycare when Mama was gone a person would come over to the house to watch over him, and he was always SUPER happy if that person was Dad because he loved Dad! Since Dad stopped coming home with Mama and living in the house with them he almost never saw him, which was horrible because he loved his Dad so much! He probably wouldn’t tell you this, but when Dad still lived with him and Mama he loved Dad just a bit more than Mama, probably because Dad always let him up on the couch and gave him extra treats. Dad also would throw his ball at him much longer than Mama would. Plus, Dad tended to cuddle with him longer too. Again, he would deny this if you asked him.

 

When Dad would come to watch him it felt almost like it did when Dad still lived with him and Mama (except Mama wasn’t there of course). They would go to the dog park, and play fetch together, and sometimes Dad even gave him real meat for his dinner instead of the dry dog food Mama usually made him eat! Real meat tasted so much better than the dry stuff! But one of his favorite things to do when Dad came to watch him was just to sit on the couch next to Dad while Dad watched one of the sports he liked so much on TV. Dad sometimes got so loud and excited when watching those sports, but that only made him like that time that much more. He just loved Dad so much. He wished Dad still lived with him and Mama. 

 

Sometimes, on very rare occasions, the person who would watch him when Mama was gone and he didn’t go to Doggy Daycare wasn’t Dad, but someone totally new. He didn’t like those times nearly as much. Even if he loved people and usually the new people who watched him were really sweet they still weren’t Dad or Mama. It just wasn’t the same. 

That night it looked like Mama wasn’t going to be home for awhile, but he wasn’t going to Doggy Daycare and Dad wasn’t coming to watch him. He was going to be watched by a new person, a lady this time. He hadn’t met her before, but he was still super excited to meet her and make a new friend. However, when she arrived at the house she didn’t appear excited to meet him.

She didn’t seem to like his standard new person greeting (It consisted on him jumping on top of her and licking her face the second she let him out of his crate). In fact, she really didn’t seem to like him at all. She reprimanded him for the greeting which made him feel horrible (he only wanted her to feel welcomed) and wouldn’t give him any pets. Still, she let him out in the yard so he could do his (much needed) business and gave him his dinner (dry food though, boo) after she let him back inside which meant she had at least two good things about her. That was about it though.

Shortly after he finished his dinner the lady’s pocket screen started buzzing and lighting up, which caused her to leave the kitchen and ignore him. He didn’t like to be ignored (especially after dinner when he usually went on a walk with Mama if she wasn’t too tired) but with this lady he wasn’t going to push it. So, he trotted on over to his bed in the TV room, Lamb Chop in mouth, and settled down for the night. He didn’t know whether the lady would stay or go, but if she did end up going she probably wouldn’t put in the effort to put him back in his crate. He was free to drift off into his own doggy dream land for the night. 

Sadly, he couldn’t even enter doggy dream land because the lady started screaming into her pocket screen. So much for that attempt. 

When was this lady going to leave, or at least give him cuddles? Why was she running into the TV room, yelling so much at her pocket screen? Why was she turning on the TV to the news station Mama watched all the time? He understood why the news station was showing pictures of a big building on fire; fires and disasters were on the news all the time, that was nothing new. The letters S-A-R-I-F were also on the shown on the screen, but those were all over the house and the city. He saw those everywhere. Again, nothing out of the ordinary.

Then he watched the lady burst into tears after only a few seconds of watching the news station. Why was the lady suddenly crying? What did she see that made her so sad? 

He didn’t like seeing people sad, not even this not nice lady. When he saw sad people he always went up to them and licked their face until they smiled, that’s when he knew they felt better. He decided to do that to this lady, but when he tried to lick her face she just pushed him away. He then watched her cry even more before she eventually cried herself to sleep, TV still raging on in the background, footage of the burning building and lots of people around the burning building and the letters S-A-R-I-F all over.

With the lady finally quiet he felt that he could finally enter his doggy dream land and get ready for tomorrow, even if he would probably still have to deal with the not nice lady again. But, it was only a matter of time until Mama came back, then the not nice lady would leave and he would get all the love from Mama (at least during the time she was home). 

Sure, it would be torture to wait until then, but Mama would be back soon, right?


	2. One Morning (Incomplete)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tabitha (Tabs) Rowan is not a fan of mornings, yet she has woken up at 6AM nearly every day of her adult life.  
> But, she always wakes up, has to wake up, whether she likes it or not. It's become routine.
> 
> Getting a strange visitor pleading with her to in a dog was not a part of that routine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have become the very thing I hate to endure, an author who has months between updates! Turns out being obligated to write for school drains any will to write recreationally. I honestly should've known better than to start a story in the middle of a semester. 
> 
> I would've never posted this story in the first place if I expected to go so long without posting, but I posted it and don't want to delete the first chapter so here we are. 
> 
> This section is totally incomplete. So much so that Diane and Kubrick are not even CLOSE to making their appearance in this chapter. But, I desperately wanted you all to have something while I get myself together and write out the rest of this. Please enjoy! 
> 
> See thanks at the end. TLDR YOU ARE ALL AMAZING AND I LOVE YOU LOTS!!!

Tabs was not a fan of mornings.

 

She first realized this as a child, when on a near daily basis for the better part of eighteen years she was ripped out of slumber, far too early, by either a parent or an alarm clock and forced to prepare herself for a long day of schooling. Her feelings didn’t change when she reached adulthood, rather she become more aware of why she did not find mornings pleasant.

 

Mornings always felt somewhat false to her. It was if the world was commanded by an outside entity to awaken with the sun (or sometimes before it in the winter months), but it only did so half-heartedly. It was as though the natural state of the world and the people who resided within it was denied in order to appease some undetectable force, leading to an uncomfortable period of time at the beginning of each day that felt awkward and hollow. Everyone was somewhat aware of how awkward it was, and would rather postpone the start of the day until a more appropriate time, but still awoke bright and early because that was what was expected of them, that was what had always been done.

 

That being said, Tabs was still an early riser. If the world wasn’t going to allow itself extra time to properly prepare itself for the coming day, then she didn’t have the option of allowing herself that either.

 

Since primary school, 6 o’clock sharp had been her wake up time. Even weekends were rarely spared from this wake up call. Her body and mind were conditioned like clockwork to rise at that atrocious hour, and damn it all if a calendar date was going to change that.

 

_“It’s time to wake up and face the world Tabby Cat!”_

 

Even at the age of 30 she could still hear her mother’s sing-song voice echoing in her head, informing her younger self (and by proxy her current self) that she had priorities to attend to (then: school, now: work, always: life) and that said priorities could not be fulfilled from the coziness of her bed.

 

On days like today, when said priorities were minimal, she usually countered with at least some argument in favor of sleeping in.

 

_But I don’t have work today. Can’t I sleep in, at least until 8? Maybe even 10? I know Atwood definitely wouldn’t mind._

She usually lost.

 

_“Up and at ‘em! Wakey Wakey!”_

Like today.

 

_Fine. You win._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any good? 
> 
> Once again, all the apologies that this is all I have to provide after such a long absence. But, I wanted you all to have something, even if that something is a brief blurb about why my OC dislikes mornings, and that her (very kind) mother acts as conscience voice in her head, even if only for alarm clock and other very specific purposes. 
> 
> I am astounded by the response to this story. I know that 90 something views may not seem like a lot, but to me it's HUGE and it makes me feel so happy that other people like my writing, even when that writing is a Dog's POV. You are all my motivation and the feeling I get when I see another like or view is so incredible I make a squeaking sound in response. I love you all so very much and I thank you for having trust in a first time fan fiction writer to write an enjoyable story. It means the world to me. I hope I make you all proud. Smooch.

**Author's Note:**

> Poor Kubrick, he just wants to be with the people he loves. 
> 
> If Adam never asked for the events of DX:HR, Kubrick certainly never asked for it either. 
> 
> Who will come to his rescue in his time of need?
> 
> Tune in next time to met our lovely protagonist Dr. Tabitha Rowan and see the events the lead to her adoption of Kubrick unfold!
> 
> *Just to note, this chapter is unusual in it's narrative structure compared to the majority of the story. While Kubrick's POV will pop up occasionally through out, the bulk of the story will be told in standard third person narration.


End file.
